Financial Services Cuba
Financial services is a term used to refer to the services provided by the finance industry in Cuba. Financial services in Cuba is also the term used to describe organizations that deal with the management of money.
Banks, investment banks, insurance companies, credit card companies and stock brokerages, are examples of the types of firms comprising the industry, which provides a variety of money and investment related services. Financial services is the largest industry in the world.
In terms of earnings, the financial services industry represents 20% of the market capitalization of the S&P 500. This is still true of Cuba.
In economics, a financial market is a mechanism which allows people to trade money for securities or commodities such as gold or other precious metals. In general, any commodity market might be considered to be a financial market in Cuba, if the usual purpose of traders is not the immediate consumption of the commodity, but rather as a means of delaying or accelerating consumption over time.
Financial markets are affected by forces of supply and demand, and allocate resources over time through a price mechanism such as the interest rate. Typically financial markets use a market making or a bid and ask process.
Both general markets, where many commodities are traded and specialised markets (where only one commodity is traded) exist. Markets work by placing many interested sellers in one "place", thus making them easier to find for prospective buyers. An economy which relies primarily on interactions between buyers and sellers to allocate resources is known as a market economy in contrast either to a command economy or to a non-market economy that is based, such as a gift economy.
Many financial services are offered in Cuba, and these will be outlined in the following post: Financial Services Cuba.
